Vaping used to be the first thing a young beauty influencer did the in the morning and the last thing she did before bed until her addiction left her with a lung infection.
Jill Clark, 25, has opened up about how her vaping addiction left her with fluid in her lungs, a nasty cough and struggling to walk up stairs.
Ms Clark vaped for about three years before going cold turkey in January.
When she picked up the habit again in May she was struck down with an illness and constantly coughing.
She quit vaping again last week after going to the doctor who told her she had damaged her lungs.
Ms Clark, who also works in corporate sales in Sydney, was put on a two-week course of antibiotics and given cough syrup Rikodeine.
She also now needs to take an inhaler wherever she goes despite never having asthma before.
‘I was an absolute chain vaper, it was the first thing I did in the morning, and last thing at night and just constantly all day,’ she told Daily Mail .
Ms Clark said that after taking a five-month break from e-cigarettes she picked the vape up again after a stressful week.
‘Unfortunately instead of dealing with the stress in a productive and healthy way, I went back to the thing I thought was a quick fix for it,’ she said.
Ms Clark said she had the cough for about four weeks and it was only getting worse before she went to the doctor.
She said she was still vaping at the time she developed the cough but hasn’t touched it since.
‘It’s definitely scared the s**t out of me to be honest,’ she said.
‘It’s maybe one of those things that you don’t realise is so bad until your health is affected, like not being able to breathe. I 100 per cent won’t go back to it.’
While Ms Clark is responding well to the antibiotics, she said if there were no signs of improvement she would need to go to hospital and undergo X-rays and ultrasounds.
Her doctor is confident her lungs have not been permanently damaged but daily tasks are now much harder for the 25-year-old.
‘It’ll be about six months before my breathing is back to normal,’ she said.
‘It’s becoming a struggle to hold conversations and walking up stairs is difficult.
‘I can even feel this conversation now is making my chest really tight.’
Ms Clark said any movement that required a spike in heartrate was difficult and exercise was off the table.
The 25-year-old said she acknowledged her health issues were her ‘fault’ but is committed to quitting vaping for good.
On top of being sick, she’s also suffering nicotine withdrawals.
‘Addiction is tricky because the intention to quit can be there but even last time if you told me I would’ve gone back to vaping, I wouldn’t have believed you,’ she said.
‘But I don’t think I’ll go back and if other people really want to quit, they’ve really got to want it for themselves.
‘Take it one day at a time and remove the shame of it.’
Ms Clark has also been sharing her journey with her vaping addiction to TikTok.
‘[Rikodeine] gives me about 15 minutes respite when I’m trying to sleep, which allows me enough time to actually fall asleep before I start coughing to death,’ Ms Clark said.
‘But then of course, I’m waking up through the night because there feels like there’s something quite literally pressing down on my chest and I actually can’t breathe.
‘I’ve never needed [an inhaler] before, never had issues, never had asthma or anything of the sort. I have one, it comes with me everywhere I go because I can’t breathe.’
The influencer told her social media followers she hoped her experience scares them and urged those who vape to use her video as a sign to quit.
She added people who vape do have the mentality that ‘it will not happen to me’, admitting she once had thought the same.
‘If you’re looking for a sign to quit or you’re looking for a reason to quit while you’re ahead, for the love of God have this be it,’ Ms Clark said.
‘I never thought it was going to be me. I never once thought I would be the person that got sick from [vaping]. Never once.’